Hello to everyone. My name is Arthur, I'm from Argentina. A few years a go I decide to have my own sidemount gear.
I'm a newbie this beautiful sport, I have an open water certification in back mount single from a local agency.
Looking in the web for Padi OW videos I found some 5thD-X technical vídeos and my interest in technical diving born. This is the way that sidemount come to my attention. I has some talk with my dive master and he didn't know anything about side mount, he only know about back mount doubles (he is a former special force diver) and he told me that "this side mount system to my is like to have a Ferrari to go shopping the groceries). Soon I found Steve videos with his Razor then I found Andrew with his z-system.
I spent more than a year to make a decision about which one I was going to buy. My annual income with the devaluation of the Argentinian peso will be 10.500 u$s dollars, now you know the big economic effort (my wife don't need to know the real price of my gear) and the expectations that I have.
Steve offer (3 years a go I think) a the razor 2 harness and some spare parts only. I saw so many Steve videos and I realize that Steve must be a formidable cave diver, a real professional, he use his own design gear to penetrate in those cave...the design of his gear is proved. But I'm in Argentina and here in the 2010 even the technical diving instructor in Buenos Aires didn't tech side mount and encourage me to not buy that kind of gear. I feel that Steve only offer a very specialized and limited gear for cave diving only and not for recreational diving, I was looking for regulators configurations, hoses, tanks and I can't find anything related to this topics in the Steve videos or web site, only promotional videos about the Razor.
Looking further for side mount gear I cross my searching path with UTD. This guys offer me a lot of free information and advertising about z-sidemount system and the possibility to use it in recreational diving, they offer too some DVD, and printed manuals about diving and sidemount exercises and they sell ALL the gear too. I only bought the harness with the z-wing and not the z-manifold and hoses (I didn't like it and still don't because those extra failure point and the necessity of an spare 2nd stage regulator with a qc6 in a pocket, I barely can afford the harness with the wing).
The next year I can invest again in the regulators, hoses and spare parts. Again I bough from UTD the iso-fold and hoses, two pair of hog d1 and 2nd stages, the spg, etc. (again my wife must not know the value of this parts).
I find very usefull to use always the 2nd stage with the long hose as a primary regulator and the neck regulator as a second option
I don't find very easy to close and open the tank valves to equilibrate the buoyancy on the fly (I think now that a change in regulators is far more easy but in an stress OOG situation my buddy may be find the short hose in front of his mouth and not the long hose) but I always know that I'm using the long hose and it is ready for my buddy.
I like too the possibility in case of a lp hose or o-ring failure proximal to the qc6 connection I can unplug the tank and save the remaining air.
I only have a pair of regulator and al80s and the idea of having the long and short hose on the iso-fold and use it with one or two tank depending the situation and not worry to have tools in the bag to rearrange the hose from one regulator to another making the rare possibility of an o-ring come reality.
I don't like the very rare possibility of failure in one of the 8 static o-rings or hose connections at the ISO-fold in my back and I can't see this situation (my buddy is out of the equation, he didn't know anything ranging from bubbles coming out from the wrong place to CPR)
I know that UTD sell his gear using the philosophy that they are teaching but "I decide to buy from them" and they were very serious, patient and answer a lot of newbie questions before I bought from them, send me a free hard copy of copy of a DVD because my computer has "software problem" to reproduce online videos.
I have not regrets about my choice, about my gear, I use it with proud, care and safety.
Now I find my self between the wall and the sword with you guys. I'm reading every post that you make. I find some very hilarious and some with an strong point. This seems like MAC VS PC.
I'm sorry for my English, here is 02:42 am.
Enviado desde mi iPhone con Tapatalk
---------- Post added April 14th, 2014 at 09:24 AM ----------
Please, don't get me wrong. I know very well my limitations, the limitation in my training, the limitations of my knowledge in my gear, the limitation of my dive buddy (is good friend and we are at the beginning of the learning curve). I always use two AL80 even for shallow dives as a second source for my buddy and I.
I one opportunity I toke my full Z to my dive-master practice pool (a 10mt of deep cylinder pool) and with the view of my dive master I start using the Z. The way he look at me the first time that i put my gear on was funny (i have a great sense of humor and i learn to laugh of my self). I has no problem with the Z then and i still don't have any problem now.
I use it in Brasil in a trip with my dive center and i was the first in the water (i have my gear ready when we arrive to the dive site). in that particular opportunity we were nearly 30 diver on the boat...all the 28 (not my buddy, dive master and the boat crew, they already know my "awkward" kind of gear) give that strange look. The crew give me my tank when i was in the water, connect the qc6, clip it and the rest was awesome.
I remember in one opportunity after the purchasing of my gear, AG was in RIO training some divers who will become instructors in CCR (if i don't remember wrong), i become in touch with AG by email a he offer me that he will fly to my city located near 2000 km and give the proper training for free...yes free, my dive-master didn't like the idea of "sharing his facility" with this "unknown person", so that great opportunity to take training was lost.
The same peoples who encourage me 3 years a go to not buy this kind gear now are selling different brands of side-mount gear (no one here sell UTD gear) and offering different levels of training in Buenos Aires. Its a mater of time and sponsorship that this "step forward in the sales and the improve in training courses" change our judgement on what is good and wrong. I'm from Corrientes, an small city located near 1000 km away from Buenos Aires, and here even now no one in my dive school hear anything or know anything about "side-what?"
I like the idea of having some good people behind my "unknown and strange at that time" gear.
Like a wrote in the previous post...I see some strong points in this thread and i waiting for heavy ammunition fall from the sky at me.
Again, i'm sorry for my bad english.